Did Moses, did St. Paul, did any of the disciples? Did Theotokos? It seems to me it was not their choice or ambition.
“Did Moses, did St. Paul, did any of the disciples?”
+Gregory Palamas says that Moses did.
“Moses and David, and whoever else became vessels of divine energy by laying aside the properties of their fallen nature, were inspired by the power of God... They became living ions of Christ, being the same as He is, by grace rather than by assimilation...” Topics of Natural and Theological Science no. 76 (from the Philokalia)
He also speaks of +Paul. +John Chrysostomos said of +Paul:
“The dispensation of our God and Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall, and a return from the alienation caused by disobedience to close communion with God. This is the reason for the sojourn of Christ in the flesh, the pattern of life described in the Gospels, the sufferings, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection; so that the man who is being saved through imitation of Christ receives the old adoption. For perfection of life the imitation of Christ is necessary, not only in the example of gentleness, lowliness, and long suffering set us in His life, but also of His actual death. So Paul, the imitator of Christ, says, `being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.’[Pilippians 3:11]. How then are we made in the likeness of His death? In that we were buried with Him by baptism.” On the Holy Spirit